THE COUNTY FAIR
Just as Nan and Flossie finished putting the last of the eggs into their
basket they heard Freddie's cries for help. Surprised and a little
frightened, they ran out of that part of the barn where Flossie had
found the first nest and Nan the second.
"Freddie! Freddie!" cried Nan. "Where are you, Freddie?"
"Down in a hole!" came the muffled answer.
"What hole?" Nan wanted to know. "Tell me where the hole is so I can
come and get you out. What hole, Freddie?"
"Maybe it's a dark hole," suggested Flossie. "You 'member the verse:
'Charcoal! Charcoal! Put me in a dark hole.' Maybe Freddie is in a dark
hole."
"Yes, it is dark!" again sounded the muffled voice of the little boy.
"I can hear you, Nan, but I can't see you. Get me out of the dark hole!"
Nan was puzzled. She, too, could hear Freddie calling, but she could not
see him. There were so many nooks and corners in the old barn that it
was not strange Freddie was not easily found. It was a great place for
playing hide and go seek, so many dark spots were there in which to
crouch, and the seeker might be right alongside of you and not spy you.
"How did you get in the hole, Freddie?" asked Nan, knowing that talking
and listening to Freddie's answers was the best way to find out where he
was.
"I was looking for a nest," he said, his voice still muffled and far
away, "and I slipped on some hay and went down the hole. There's a lot
of hay in the hole with me now, and I'm stuck. I'm about half way down
in the hole, Nan."
Then Nan began to understand what had taken place. She remembered that
once something like this had happened to her.
"Are you sliding down or standing still, Freddie?" she called to her
brother.
"I was sliding, but I'm standing still now," he answered. "I'm stuck
fast in a lot of hay."
"Well, wiggle as hard as you can," advised Nan. "I know where you are.
You're in one of the chutes, or wooden tubes, that Uncle Daniel shoves
hay down from the top floor of the barn to the lower floor. You stepped
into a hay chute and you're stuck half way down. Wiggle, and you'll
slide down the rest of the way and you'll be out."
So Freddie wiggled as hard as he could and, surely enough, he felt
himself again sliding down. He was not hurt, for there was soft hay on
all sides of him. But it tickled, and it scratched the back of his neck,
as well as his hands and face.
Some of the hay dust got up his nose, too, and made him want to sneeze.
He gave one little sneeze--making a queer sound cooped up as he was--and
then he cried:
"Oh, I'm stuck again, Nan! I started sliding and now I'm stuck again!"
"Wiggle some more," advised his sister.
She had set down the basket of eggs and was looking toward a dark side
of the barn where she could see the lower ends of several wooden chutes.
Some were for oats and others for hay. She did not know just which
wooden chute Freddie would slide down. The chutes did not come all the
way to the floor, there being room under each one to set a box or bushel
basket.
"Wiggle some more, Freddie!" again advised Nan.
"I will!" came the answer. "I'll wiggle hard and I'll--Oh--kerchoo!"
That was Freddie sneezing, and he sneezed so hard that it did more good
than his wiggling, for it sent him sliding down with a mass of hay to
the bottom of the chute.
"Here I am!" he cried, and with a thump he landed on the barn floor, so
wrapped and tangled in a clump of hay that he was not in the least hurt.
"I'm all--kerchoo--right--kerchoo--Nan!" he said, talking and sneezing
at the same time.
"Well, I'm glad we found you, anyhow!" laughed his sister. "How did it
happen?"
"Oh, it just happened," was all Freddie could say. "I was looking for
eggs, and I slipped. I'm glad I didn't slip in a hen's nest, else I'd
'a' broken a lot of eggs."
"I'm glad of that, too," agreed Nan. "Well, Flossie and I are 'way ahead
of you. We have found two nests!"
"I'm going to find one myself!" declared Freddie, and a little later he
did. This nest had many eggs in it, for it was used by several hens in
turn, so that now the basket was half filled.
Then, by searching about, the children found more nests and eggs until
the basket was quite full. Now arose a dispute between Flossie and
Freddie, for each one wanted to carry the basket. Nan was afraid either
of the little twins might stumble and fall, thereby breaking the eggs.
"I know what we'll do," Nan said, making up a little plan, as she often
had to do to get Freddie and Flossie into a new way of thinking. "We'll
play hide and go seek. I'll go on ahead and hide, and whoever finds me
can carry the basket a little way."
"Oh, that'll be fun!" cried Freddie. "Come on, Flossie! Blind your
eyes."
"Don't come until I get ready!" said Nan.
The children promised they would not. Carefully they closed their eyes,
covering them with their hands. Nan hurried away, walking softly so the
twins could not guess which way she was going. And she picked out a
hiding place close to the house, right at the foot of the steps, in
fact.
"Whichever one finds me won't have very far to carry the eggs, and they
won't be so likely to drop them," thought Nan, as she crouched down
behind the rain-water barrel.
"Coop!" cried Nan, this being a signal that she was hidden.
"Ready or not we're coming!" shouted Freddie. He and his sister opened
their eyes and began running about, eagerly searching. It was some
little time before they found Nan behind the barrel, and Flossie spied
her first.
"I see you! I see you!" laughed the delighted little girl, and she was
so excited over finding Nan that she never realized she had only a few
steps to carry the basket of eggs.
Flossie covered those few steps safely, and the eggs were put away in
the closet by Aunt Sarah, later to be made into puddings and cakes for
the Bobbsey twins.
"When are we going to the Bolton County Fair?" asked Bert that evening
after supper, when he and Harry were resting after their sport in
catching bullfrogs.
"And I'm going to ride on a lion!" declared Freddie.
"We might go over to the fair to-morrow," said Mr. Bobbsey. "Do you
folks want to go?" he asked his brother and Aunt Sarah.
"I don't believe I'll have time," answered Mr. Bobbsey's brother.
"Nor I," said Aunt Sarah. "I have a lot of cooking to do."
"Then I'm going to stay at home and help you," offered the mother of the
Bobbsey twins.
"Oh, can't we go to the fair?" wailed Flossie and Freddie, almost ready
to cry.
"Of course you may go!" replied Mother Bobbsey. "I was going to say that
daddy could take you children--Harry may go, may he not?" she asked his
mother.
"Oh, yes."
"Hurray!" cried Harry, and Bert and Nan echoed his cry of joy.
So it was arranged that Mr. Bobbsey would take the children to the
Bolton County Fair, there to see the many wonderful things of which they
had dreamed for days and nights.
The Bolton County Fair was one of the largest in that part of the state.
Every year it was held, and farmers from many miles away brought their
largest pumpkins and squashes, and their longest ears of corn, hoping to
win prizes with them. The farmers' wives brought samples of their
needlework, such as bedquilts, lace or embroidery, and samples of their
cooking and preserving. The farm boys and girls made things or raised
something to exhibit at the fair.
Besides this there were new kinds of machinery for the farmers to look
at, such as windmills and plows and electrical appliances to be used on
the farms. Men who raised horses and cattle took their best specimens to
the fair to show them for prizes.
Then there were to be automobile races and horse races, and there were
many amusements from the big merry-go-round to the little tents and
booths where one could throw baseballs at dolls or toss rings over
canes. There were also booths and tents where candy, ice-cream, lemonade
and cider were sold, as well as places to eat.
"Oh, it's wonderful!" cried Nan, as she and her brothers, her sister,
Harry and her father got out of their automobile and walked through the
big gates into the fair grounds. "Don't you like it, Bert?"
"Sure! It's fine!"
"Let's go over and look at the airship," proposed Harry.
"And the balloon," added Bert. "Do you s'pose I could go up in the
balloon?" he asked his father.
"No, I don't suppose you could--I wouldn't like you to," said Mr.
Bobbsey.
"But why, Dad? The balloon is fast to the ground. It can't get away!"
"I'm not so sure about that. I don't want you to go up. You'll have
plenty of other fun."
"I wanted to go up in the balloon," and Bert sighed in disappointment.
"We'll go look at it, anyhow," suggested Harry.
"I want a ride on a lion!" insisted Freddie.
"So do I!" added Flossie.
"All right, I'll take you children to the merry-go-round," said Mr.
Bobbsey. "You come there and meet us after you finish looking at the
balloon and the airship," he said to Bert and Harry.
"I'll stay with you, Daddy," said Nan. "I want a ride on the
merry-go-round, too," and she laughed.
They could hear the music of the "carrousel," as a merry-go-round is
sometimes called.
"Come on!" urged Flossie and Freddie, tugging at their father's hands.
He led them over to the crowd that surrounded the machine on which a
whirling ride could be had for five cents.
"This way! This way for the merry-go-round!" cried a boy's voice. "Only
five cents a ride! Get your tickets and take a ride! On an elephant or a
tiger!"
"I want a lion!" cried Freddie.
"All right! This way for your lions!" cried the voice.
Mr. Bobbsey, pushing his way through the crowd with the children, saw
Bob Guess on the merry-go-round. The boy was helping children to their
seats on the wooden animals, strapping them safely so they would be
ready when the machinery started. The organ kept on playing all the
while.
"Hello, Bob!" called Nan, as she climbed up on a wooden horse, while
Flossie and Freddie, with their father, looked for lions.
The strange boy glanced up in some surprise. But when he saw Nan a smile
came over his rather sad face.
"Oh, hello!" he said. "How did you get here?"
"We came just now in my father's auto. Do you run the merry-go-round?"
"I help when Mr. Blipper isn't here. I take up the tickets after she
starts. Have you got your tickets?"
"Yes, daddy bought them. My little brother and sister want to ride on
lions."
"There's a pair right behind you," said Bob Guess.
Nan turned and saw her father just finishing the strapping up of Flossie
and Freddie each on a big wooden lion. The small twins were smiling with
delight.
"Gid-dap!" called Flossie to her lion.
"You shouldn't say 'gid-dap' to a lion," objected Freddie.
"What should you say?" asked Flossie, turning to look at her brother.
"You ought to say--now--er--'Scat!'"
"That's what you say to a cat!" declared Flossie.
"Well, then say 'Boo!' I guess that's what you say to a lion," went on
Freddie. "Say 'Boo!'"
The little girl looked doubtful.
"All right. Boo!" cried Flossie, after a moment.
It was not quite time, however, for the merry-go-round to start. Mr.
Bobbsey made his way along the platform to Bob, who stood near Nan.
"Where is Mr. Blipper?" asked Mr. Bobbsey. "I want to see him."
"He's away to-day, Mr. Bobbsey," was the answer.
"Away! Oh, I am sorry," was the reply of the Bobbsey twins' father.
"This is his day off," went on the lad.
"Will he be here to-morrow?"
"Yes, sir. But look out now, she's going to start!"